This invention relates to a device for carrying a munitions magazine. Important features in a magazine carrier include the ability to keep the magazine and munitions therein secure to a wearer via attachment to a MOLLE garment or belt.
Other magazine carriers have included various pouch-type carriers. The pouches typically include a covering or lid that is secured with a fastener such as a snap, hook and loop closure, bungee cord, or buckle, etc. When pouch-type carriers are worn, the outfeed end of a magazine is typically positioned at the bottom of the pouch or toward the feet of a wearer. These types of carriers require opening the pouch, removing the magazine, reorienting the magazine within the hand of the shooter, and inserting the magazine into a weapon before the magazine's ammunition can be prepared for firing. Each step in this process presents sources for user-error when performed rapidly or during the increased stress of a fire-fight or a timed competition.
Another type of magazine carrier includes structures that mimic the four faces and latch of a weapon's receiver-well. The magazine is precisely aligned with the carrier and inserted so that a locking mechanism in the carrier engages the magazine's recessed area. The locking mechanisms typically include multiple moving parts so that the locking mechanism of the carrier may be selectively engaged or disengaged from the magazine. The moving parts may become worn, damaged or inoperable over time. To prepare the magazine for firing, the wearier needs to disengage the locking mechanism while simultaneously controlling the magazine, remove the magazine linearly from the carrier, and orient the magazine for insertion into the weapon's receiver-well. This process presents opportunities for user error.
Another type of carrier holds a magazine in compression. This type of carrier requires a trade-off between retention and accessibility. The tighter the magazine is held in compression, the more securely the magazine is retained, but the stiffer the draw. Rapid accessibility is diminished when the magazine is held in tight compression. A magazine may be held under less compression by a carrier to allow easier access and quicker draw, but the magazine is less securely retained and subject to falling out. The compression can be adjustable with a screw or by altering an elastic coupling to provide for greater retention or greater access depending on a user's preferences, but the preferred setup may be elusive as there is very little tolerance between an acceptable setup and an unsatisfactory setup.
Previous carriers have required two hands to operate, required a complex process to weaponize the magazine, required careful dexterity to remove the magazine from the carrier and orient it for loading into a weapon, required a tradeoff between retention and rapid accessibility, and have been made of multiple moving parts which are subject to degradation and add complexity to the carrier. What is needed is a magazine carrier that overcomes one or more of these issues.